


Borrowing A Cup Of Tech

by kyburg



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Advent 2015, Borrowing it's what we do, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Iron Man 3 Compliant, Pepperony - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt, What Lives Under Your Floors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 07:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5699722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyburg/pseuds/kyburg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Widget and Nybble live in the IT department of a minor division of Stark Industries, somewhere snug and chilled to 52 degrees. IE, the server room.  Where they have adventures, while borrowing the basics of living from the Human Beans who work there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Borrowing A Cup Of Tech

**Author's Note:**

> Splitting out the Advent 2015 Posts into their own stories, then collecting them (oh AO3, I'm learning as fast as I can) - the original chapter format was clearly making it difficult for folks to find their favorites.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was a known thing that if they wanted to survive, they had to adapt. Leave the quiet spaces and infiltrate the modern ones, the ones filled with light, electricity and _magic._ They could no longer count on finding safe haven in the gardens and wild places they shared with the Human Beans, they had to find their place alongside them. With them. Inside their homes, their offices and factories. In the crawlspaces. Under the raised floors.

Just, out of sight as always. The lore told of the difficulty of remaining hidden, there was no doubt it was the number one skill a Borrower must learn, if they were to remain alive and free. But in these modern days, just remaining unseen was only half the battle.

No, one needed to remain _unfound_ as well.

And one did not stay rooted like a tree anymore. That way lay despair, isolation and eventually, the end. No, that simply wasn't the way. Any fool could see that.

Borrowers like Widget and Nybble were not interested in endings. Having found each other riding along with the Boxes that the Oops Truck took between Places, their meeting had been as sudden a surprise as an arc firing, just as welcome and so far - they had been inseparable ever since, finding they had each been so good as Borrowing and remaining Unfound, they had even hid from each other all their lives. (Well, that shit was over, as Old Spice had said.)

Widget, at the Sandy Dunes of Stark Home. Nybble, under the Floors of Stark Farms, in the Bigger City.

It was safe, living under the floors of the data center at the Farm - nobody went under there, not even the rats for the noise and wind created by The Blowers that kept everything cold and fresh. But keeping warm without fires could be a challenge, and of course - food could be scarce. One had to travel to the cafeteria at night to Borrow what was left over. Fed up with endless Coffee-Mate soups, Nybble took it upon himself to Travel out to see what else could be found.

And of course, what he found was Widget, looking for a place to cool off. In her Borrowing bag? Salad and crackers, brown rice and cotton balls. Q-tips! Bits of wire and metal shavings, plenty of things that fetched good trades when they returned to the Farm. 

She found the barrels of _flavored_ Coffee-Mate soups, after all. The ones marked "Cinnamon" were particularly nice.

Hair like black silk, tip-tilted dark almond eyes that danced constantly with mischief and shenanigans, Widget loved it when Nybble Traveled to Home and spent more than the night. They always found so many more things to Borrow when they were together.

Dum-E knew they were there, but that was okay. Nobody listened to him, but they were effusive in their gratitude, cleaning and oiling his joints (perhaps not so well, the Tony Bean complained constantly, Widget said) and he gave great rides. JARVIS? If the JARVIS knew of them, he never said. Dum-E enjoyed being rude when the JARVIS was mentioned.

Nybble loved the Pepper Bean. Riding in her handbag, one found the most amazing things. One stick of the chewing gum would insulate a whole house against drafts! And it smelled like being in a garden (kinda sorta) as well! And the black nail polish made wonderful linoleum for the floors, shiny and resistant to chipping. Lovely stuff. Oh, Nybble loved the Pepper Bean. She was sweet, soft-spoken and went everywhere - perfect for Traveling, if the Oops Truck wasn't around.

She was always too busy to notice Nybble. He stole strands of her hair out of the hairbrush and made long, curling ropes out of it. Widget would tease him because it was so close to the color of - well - all of him (the sunlight was not kind to Nybble's fair skin, he freckled and burnt constantly). But she would bring strands of the Tony Bean's to weave in as well and if either of the Beans found the little loops lying about? "Wow, Pep." "Aw, Tony."

And Widget would giggle and Nybble would stifle himself.

The day the Home Fell Apart was one that even the lore would not forget. They did what they could, but being Borrowers, it was get their own to safety first. Then, help. Without being seen. Without being found, oh good heavens. Don't get found.

That night, when the Tony Bean was gone, and the Pepper Bean stood at the edge of what was left of Home, looking into the water below, it was Widget who saw it first.

One of the Faces, broken and thrown off in a corner, laying on its back. "Ny, there's lights on in there."

"Don't be silly, it's without power - you must be seeing a reflection or - holy chrome, there is!"

"It's flashing, like the old Talking Machines when they had something to say - "

"But those were orange or green. That's red."

"Noooo, but it's blinking like it has something to say."

But the Pepper wouldn't see it, the Face lying on its back like that. The light was inside, even if it was flashing. Only a Borrower would see it, talking to the floor like it was.

"Widget, get help. We need to flip it over."

"Poor Pepper Bean."

"Nah, I got a hunch. It is like those old Talking Machines, think you're on to something."

"Let the Pepper find it?"

"Let the Pepper find it. I think the Pepper has to find it. She'll know how to make it talk."

Twas only middling heavy, but many hands made short work of it. With all the confusion, it was a simple task to flip the Face over and then find hiding spaces. It was easy to watch, and sure enough - the Pepper found it. "Oh, listen! It's the Server Voice from the Farm!" Nybble almost fell over himself. He knew that voice, it was heaven and home to him. Then - 

_"Pepper, it's me."_

"Tony Bean!" The cheers of a score of Borrowers was easily covered by the sound of the message, and frankly - the firemen were looking for fires, not them after all.

_"...I just stole a poncho from a Wooden Indian."_

Widget fist pumped with glee. "Stole, my foot. _Borrowing!_ That's my **DAWG!** Everything is going to be just fine, you'll see."

They all hitched rides back to the Farm with Nybble. It was tight living, under the server room floor for a while, but there was a constant stream of News. The Borrowers never thought the Tony Bean had died, after all. Sandy Dunes went back to being Sandy Dunes, and Widget's folk went back to Borrowing from the waves, the sage brush and Neptune's Net down the way. Some things, though - were meant for the Beans only, and while the screwdriver might have come in handy, Widget insisted they leave it out for them to find. Perhaps for the Pepper Bean, or even the Happy Bean - who hadn't been so happy when he'd seen what Sandy Dunes had become while he was gone.

Then Tony Bean came back for a visit, and tossed something into the ocean, something he'd clearly wanted them to have, didn't he?

It would make a lovely home for she and Nybble, Widget had said as they pulled it from the waves. Clearly, it had been meant as thanks for all the Borrowing skills, she said. The others teased her, of course. Widget and the Tony Bean had been at Stark Home the longest, after all.

Her eyes had been shining when he'd found what she'd left out for him. "Please Borrow it on Dum-E for me, Tony Bean, " she'd said as she'd waved good-bye, as sad as Nybble had ever seen her. They were going to miss the Tony Bean and all the useful things he'd forgotten to put away so they could Borrow them.

They kept borrowing from the remains of Home for years after that. When one would find the old ropes, it became a litany of Aw and Wow. And they missed their Beans, they did.

Particularly the chewing gum. Damn, that had come in handy!


End file.
